Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment
Vice President confers National awards for Outstanding Work done towards empowerment of PwDsON ‘International day of Persons with Disabilities’
On the occasion of International Day of Persons with Disabilities today, the Vice President of India Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu conferred the National Awards on Individuals, Institutions, Organizations, State/District etc for their outstanding achievements and work done towards empowerment of Persons with Disabilities at a function in VigyanBhawean, New Delhi today. Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri ThawarchandGehlot, Ministers of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar, Shri RamdasAthawale, Shri Vijay Sampla, Secretary DEPwD Smt. Shakuntala D. Gamlin and various dignitaries also graced the occasion. A total of 56 individuals and 16 institutions were awarded on the occasion.
Addressing on the occasion, the Vice President said that the award presentation programme is a very pious and meaning programme. India is known for its philosophy of “Care and Share”. It is our duty to take care of our physically disabled brothers and sisters. Skill development of Divyangjans is very necessary and useful. He said that the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is doing a very commendable job. He opined that the awardees serve as the role model to others. Divyangjans need Empathy and not Sympathy. He said that there is a hidden talent in every disabled person that needs to be harnessed. He congratulated all award winners.
In his address Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot said that the people’s participation is very necessary in the overall upliftment of Divyangjans. During past four years, the Government of India has taken several new initiatives for the Divyangjans. Six Guiness Book of World Records have been created by Divyangjans. More than 7500 camps have been organized and more than twelve lakhs of Divyangjans have been benefitted. Reservation for Divyangjans in Government services have been increased from 3% to 4%. Divyangjans have performed exceedingly well in Para-Olympics games.
For National Awards 2018, an advertisement inviting applications from persons belonging to all the 21 specified disabilities was published in the leading newspapers on 17th July, 2018. In all, 1221 applications were received till last date of receipt of applications. These applications were scrutinized as per the parameters prescribed in the Guidelines by four Screening Committees constituted for this purpose. The National Selection Committee in its meeting held on 1st November, 2018 considered the applications shortlisted by the Screening Committees and recommended 72 Awards in 14 categories of National Awards.
Till 2017, the Award Scheme was governed under the National Awards Rules, 2013 which provided 7 categories of disabilities as per the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995. However, with the coming into force of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 w.e.f. 19th April 2017, the number of specified disabilities increased from 7 to 21 under the new Law. Accordingly, all the 21 disabilities have been included under the National Award Guidelines which have been notified in the Extra-ordinary Gazette of India dated 2nd August, 2018.
Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities  writes to the State Governments/Union Territory Administrations and Central Ministries/Departments calling nominations for National Awards in various categories. Advertisement is also published in the national/regional language daily newspapers to give wide publicity to the Awards. The detailed scheme of National Awards as also the advertisement issued calling applications is uploaded on the website of the Department  in a downloadable format.
CATEGORY-WISE LIST OF NATIONAL WINNERS- 2018
1. BEST EMPLOYEE/SELF EMPLOYED WITH DISABILITIES
i)Locomotor Disability 
a) Ms. Pooja Agarwal
b) Ms. Inderjit Nandan
c) Ms. Jyoti Amrutlal Shah
d) Sh. Suresh Chandra Shantilal Lalan
e) Dr. Pramod Kumar Singh
f) Dr. S. Thangavel
ii)Visual Impairment 
a) Ms Mona Goel
b) Sh. Pratik Rajiv Jindal
c) Sh. Bhupendra Tripathi
iii)Hearing Impairment 
a) Ms Oli Mishra
b) Ms Rinku Mathews
c) Sh. Deepak Bahadur
d) Sh. Ashish Madhukar Patil
e) Sh. Sudershan Kumar
iv) Intellectual Disability 
a) Ms Shivani Gupta
b) Sh. Harish Vij
c) Sh. Bharat S
v) Disability caused due to Blood Disorder 
- Sh. Jitendra Sharma
vi) Multiple Disabilities 
a) Ms R Suganya
b) Sh. M. Karthikeyan
II.AWARD FOR BEST EMPLOYERS AND PLACEMENT OFFICER/ AGENCY
Best Employer
- Ms Radhambika S.
Best Placement Officer/ Agency
- NAB Employment Department
- R. Hari, Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd.
III. BEST INDIVIDUAL & INSTITUTION
Best Individual
- Ms Manjula Kalyan
- Sh.Carmo deBritto Noronoha
- Dr. Yogesh Dube
Best Institution
- Abhoy Misson
- Mata Bhagwanti Chadha Niketan
- Montfort Centre for Education
IV. ROLE MODEL
- Locomotor Disability 
- Ms R. Dhanya
- Ms Ekta Bhyan
- Sh. Vishwas K.S.
- Sh. Lalit Kumar
- Visual Impairment 
- Ms Madhu Singhal
- Dr. Kiran Kumari
- Sh. CA Bhushan Nandkishore Toshniwal
- Sh. Kartik Sawhney
- Sh. Manvendra Singh Patwal
iii) Hearing Impairment 
- Ms Nishtha Dudeja
- Sh. Mohit Kumar Paswan
- Developmental Disorder 
- Ms Rushali Jena
- Sh. Akshya N Bhatnagar
vi) Intellectual Disability 
- Ms Anindita Dutta
- Sh. Kaushik Banerjee
vii) Chronic Neurological Conditions 
- Dr. Ashish Chopra
- Multiple Disabilities 
a) Sh. R. Sriram Srinivas
b) Major Devender Pal Singh
V. BEST APPLIED RESEARCH/ INNOVATION/ PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AIMED AT IMPROVING THE LIFE OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
a) Prof. Ravi Poovaiah
b) Sh. Amit Laddi
c) Sh. Subrata Kumar Haldar
VI. OUTSTANDING WORK IN THE CREATION OF BARRIER-FREE ENVIRONMENT FOR THE PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
- District Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh
- Municipal Corporation, Indore, Madhya Pradesh
- Municipal Council, Nagda, Madhya Pradesh
- IBM Karnataka
VII. BEST DISTRICT IN PROVIDING REHABILITATION SERVICE
- Thiruvallur District, Tamil Nadu
- Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh
VIII. BEST STATE CHANNELIZING AGENCY OF NATIONAL HANDICAPPED FINANCE AND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
- Kerala State Handicapped Persons Welfare Corporation
IX. OUTSTANDING CREATIVE ADULT PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
a) Smt. Mayanlambam Sumati, Manipur
b) Shri Chhatrpal  J&K
X. BEST CREATIVE CHILD WITH DISABILITIES
- Ms. Prerna
- Ms. Urjaswati Roy
- Sh. Parth Sanghi
- Master Swayam Vilas Patil, Maharashtra
XI. BEST BRAILLE PRESS
- Rajkiya Braille Press, Nishatganj, Lucknow
XII. BEST ACCESSIBLE WEBSITE
- Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, Pune, Maharashtra.
- Modern College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Pune.
XIII.  BEST STATE IN PROMOTING EMPOWERMENT OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
- State of Telangana
ii) BEST STATE IN IMPLEMENTATION OF ACCESSIBLE INDIA CAMPAIGN
a) State of Rajasthan
XIV. BEST SPORTS PERSON WITH DISABILITY
- Ms Kanchanmala D Pande
- Ms Sonali Dharmender Thakkar
- Sh. Prakash Jayaramaiah
- Sh. Virender Singh